Claudio Linati (1 February 1790 – 11 December 1832) was an Italian painter and lithographer who studied under Jacques-Louis David in Paris and established the first lithographic press in Mexico. He co-founded and edited El Iris, a periodical that published the first political cartoons in Mexico, and was forced to leave the country for his political activism. Linati was also involved in revolutionary causes in Italy and Spain. He is known for his hand-colored book illustrating costumes of different types of people in Mexico.
Early years
Marcos Claudio Marcelo Antonio Pompeyo Blas Juan Linati y Prevost was born into a noble family in Carbonera de Parma, in the Duchy of Parma, on 1 February 1790, just after the start of the French Revolution. His father, count Filippo Linati, was active in the politics of his time. Claudio Linati was educated by the jurist Giuseppe Caderini. At the age of seventeen Claudio Linati joined the Society of Engravers of Parma, designing and engraving the portrait of the famous artist-priest Andrea Amoretti, co-worker of Giambattista Bodoni.
He studied lithography, a recently invented technique for printing images. In 1809 he went to Paris, where he studied painting in the studio of Jacques-Louis David. Linati also studied in the Paris studio of fellow-Italian Gioacchino Giuseppe Serangeli.
Count Linati became an officer in the Napoleonic army. In 1810 he was imprisoned in Hungary. After his release he moved to Spain. In 1818 he returned to Parma, where he founded the Secret Society of the Sublime Perfect Master, with the goal of resisting tyranny. In 1821 Linati was in Barcelona, leading the Migueletes militia. He came to own considerable property in Catalonia. In 1823 he was taken prisoner in La Seu d'Urgell and sent as a prisoner to Mont-Louis in France. In October 1823 he was in Avignon, and soon after was in Brussels. On 9 April 1824 Linati was tried in absentia and sentenced to death by the Supreme Court of Parma for conspiracy against the government.
Mexico
Linati was commissioned to survey the coast of Mexico and find an anchorage for the ships and machines of mining companies. He arrived at Alvarado, Veracruz, Mexico on 6 March 1825. This was the year in which the last Spanish stronghold in San Juan de Ulúa surrendered. On 22 September 1825 Linati moved to Veracruz to study lithography. In 1826 he moved to Mexico City, where the government assisted him in opening a lithography workshop. He and Gaspar Franchini installed the first lithography machine to arrive in Mexico in February 1826. Franchini died while the machine was being installed.
Linati also set up a school, with pupils who included José Gracida and Ignacio Serrano. The small workshop included two presses and a collection of prints by French artists for use as examples by the students. Not long after arriving Linati made a lithograph of a map of Texas by Fiorenzo Galli. A copy of this map, the only one known to have survived, is held by the Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin.
Linati had come to Mexico to observe a newly independent country and to "civilize" and politicize its people. He was one of the editors of the weekly El Iris (February–August 1826). His partners in this enterprise were Fiorenzo Galli and the Cuban poet José María Heredia. The literary periodical included lithographs depicting antiquities and modern fashions. It also provided diverse cultural content, and portraits of Guadalupe Victoria, José María Morelos and Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, heroes of the independence struggle.
El Iris also included editorial content that sparked controversy. Linati was sure there would be another attempt by Spain to conquer Mexico. He and Galli became involved in the disputes between Yorkinos and Escoceses, rival groups of Freemasons. Linati took the Yorkino position that the people were sovereign, and only federalism could protect individuals and the nation against the depredations of the army and the priests. He was opposed to strong central authority and in favor of greater education in citizenship and the discipline of military service.
The paper published the first Mexican political cartoon, La Tiranía (Tyranny), which was attributed to Linati. El Iris demanded freedom of the press throughout Mexico. Only forty issues were printed. The political comments caused the closure of the paper and forced Linati to leave the country in 1826. Although short-lived, El Iris established a lasting model for journals that printed satirical lithographs on political and social subjects.